Friday, October 18, 2013

After doing such a great job folding the egg whites into
this apple and cheddar soufflé batter, I celebrated by dropping a measuring cup
into the bowl. By the time I fished it out, cleaned the sides of the bowl, and shook my
fist at the heavens, I’d lost a lot of micro-bubbles.

I pressed on, and despite my tragic encounter with gravity,
the resulting soufflés were simply fabulous, which just goes to show that maybe
we need to relax about this whole folding thing. Sure, more bubbles would make
it go a little higher, but if you’ve never made a soufflé before, I hope this
gives you some new-found courage.

By the way, I don’t know why most similar recipes call for
extra egg whites. Actually, I do know; it’s to make them more visually
impressive, but I think this dilutes the flavor. I use about half the egg
whites normally called for, and these are still light as a feather.

If you decide to give these a whirl, please promise me you'll use a great cheddar. I used a sharp and creamy Cabot, but any other quality, aged cheddar will work. These apple cheddar soufflés are very versatile, and would
make a great appetizer, a special holiday brunch starter, or deliciously
different dessert. I hope you give
them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4
(I used Le Creuset 4 3/4-ounce size):

For the apples:

1 tbsp butter, heated until edges start to turn brown

1 apple, cubed

1 tbsp sugar

For the batter:

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp butter

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

pinch freshly ground black pepper

pinch cayennepinch nutmeg

3 oz sharp white cheddar, or almost 1 cup grated

2 eggs, separated

Bake at 400 degrees F.
for about 22 minutes

*Assuming you don’t drop a measuring cup into your folded
egg white fluffed batter, you should have about 2 cups of batter. You can
divide each 1/2 cup portion into whatever sized ramekin you have, but a 4 3/4
to 5 oz size is ideal. Basically, when it’s fully puffed and browned, it’s
done. And for goodness sake, serve very warm, but not piping hot!

I chuckled at your dumping all the milk into the roux. I like to make sausage gravy for breakfast to put over scrambled eggs sometimes and I just dump chicken stock into the sausage fat roux and stir it around with a spatula. It looks like it could never possibly come together but I do this enough that I know better. BTW I learned the hot roux cold liquid trick from you. :)

Hoping to make these tomorrow! Can the recipe be doubled, or should I make two separate batches? And would it be possible, in the event that I need to make two batches, to do a twice-baked version by under cooking them a bit and finishing just before serving?